This branch notes:
- The employer is planning £27m of budget reductions, including staffing cuts and attacks on academic pensions
- This follows endless rounds of cuts over the last 3-years that has led to the loss of a 1000 staff, a profound deterioration of core university services, and the plummeting ranking of SHU in the annual league tables
This branch believes:
- The current cuts – like previous ones – are both a combination of past financial incompetence, but also go further than is needed, presumably to create financial headroom so the employer can engage in further speculative and risky investments
This branch resolves:
- Our members are not willing to tolerate any further deterioration in our terms and conditions, nor further deterioration in student’s learning conditions
- We will move to an immediate ballot for strike action over the planned cuts, and threats to our pensions
- We will be taking significant, intermittent strike action over a 12 month period.